‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Recap: Season 1, Episode 12, ‘Seeds’

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is too big for just one person to recap, so Speakeasy assembled its own superhero team – WSJ video wiz Marshall Crook and reporter Michael Calia – to review (and argue about) the new ABC series each week.

Feel free to join in on the action and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Hey folks, it’s just Mike tonight. Marshall has some business in “Tahiti” to sort out, and he should be back, new and improved, next week.

We pick up with Agent Coulson still trying to cope with the fallout from his, uh, brain-bending revelation last week as the team looks into an incident involving cadets narrowly escaping a bizarrely freezing swimming pool at the science and technology arm of the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Fitz and Simmons, who are rock stars on campus, but Agent Ward, who came out of the operations end of training program, and Skye feel a bit like outsiders. Skye, in particular, is feeling alienated as she really isn’t one of the “cool kids” in S.H.I.E.L.D. to begin with.

While Fitz and Simmons give a pep talk to the cadets, one of the kids in attendance starts to freeze. The kid in question — freshman Donnie Gill (played by “Lost’s” Dylan Minnette) — was at the pool-freezing incident, mysteriously typing away on a laptop in the shadows, and after he’s thawed he tells the agents he’s puzzled that anyone would be targeting him. The team assigns Fitz to check on him, and over the course of his visit to Donnie’s room, Fitz finds the student to be extremely smart and innovative, and also lonely, with some Big Ideas up his sleeves. Fitz also helps him solve a problem with one of his devices, only, of course, there are disastrous results, and Fitz is knocked out by a cadet plotting along with Donnie.

Coulson and Melinda May, however, spend the episode looking into something more mysterious … more ominous, judging by May’s tone. It turns out they’re looking into Skye’s past because, hey, that plot thread needs to advance. May has an ulterior motive, though: To get Coulson’s head back in the game and out of his freshly remembered past of pain, death, pain, resurrection, pain and denial. Instead, Coulson ties his pain to this mission, vowing to out all the secrets, and, just as May is divulging her big secret (her affair with Ward), their stakeout target — a rogue agent named Lumley — takes off. Coulson corners him with a hovering Lola, identifying himself as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and Lumley sighs in relief and says it must be about “the baby girl.”

Lumley tells them of a dead agent, Linda Avery, and some intrigue about an object of unknown origin and a slaughter in China. The object of unknown origin, by the way, turned out to be the “baby girl” in question, and Avery died trying to protect her, according to Lumley. Other people involved had been killed, and so Lumley is worried he might be next. He also warns them to stay away from the girl, since, as he says, death follows her. May wants to take him in, but Coulson is justifiably skeptical of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intentions these days. Back on the Bus, Coulson tells Skye all about what he found — that Agent Avery wasn’t her mother, and that an entire team of agents was killed — and it devastates her. (More on this later.)

As for the trouble on campus, Ward stays behind with Agent Weaver, while Fitz, Simmons and Skye meet up with Coulson and May to put together the plan Donnie and Seth Dormer, the other cadet, are working on. The kids are building a freeze machine to sell to nefarious rich guy Ian Quinn, last seen trying to use Franklin Hall’s Gravitonium to do some bad stuff, but now that S.H.I.E.L.D. knows what’s up, Quinn balks at finishing the deal. He says he wants a demonstration from the kids, right there at S.H.I.E.L.D. Really, though, the deal’s off in his mind, and he just wants to cause a little trouble. Instead, the boys generate a massive ice hurricane. Seth is pleased, but Donnie’s guilt gets the best of him and he tries to shut it down.

With Donnie and Seth struggling to get a hold of their contraption, Coulson’s team takes the Bus into the eye of the storm to find Donnie and the machine. Seth is hurt, however, when the machine explodes, and the agents race to save his life. It’s too late, though. Coulson, his own death fresh in his mind, doesn’t want to keep pressing and so he calls off the resuscitation effort. Donnie is left feeling bitter and guilty, and S.H.I.E.L.D. moves to, well, put him on ice. As the young cadet is being taken away, however, he becomes aware that he now possesses a rather chilling super power. Okay, okay, I’ll cool it with the puns, but here’s a good time to note that “Donnie Gill” is the name of one of the men who became the supervillain Blizzard in the comics.

As for the fallout from Coulson’s revelation to Skye, well, it turns out to be not all that bad! Coulson tells May (and us) that Skye simply realized that S.H.I.E.L.D. was her family all along, protecting her since infancy. Are you as frustrated as I am? This is a confounding way to script character drama. Why not have Skye, who’s been bristling against the agency since Day One, tell us about this? We should feel her catharsis along with her. But no, we just see images of her looking at a memorial to fallen agents that features Agent Avery’s name as Coulson tells us the episode’s lesson. I don’t think we’re done with Skye’s mysterious backstory by a long shot, but there’s no way she should be at peace with what Coulson told her, and if she is, we should see that’s the case.

That’s not all, folks. The ice hurricane — oh yeah, that — continues to rage, and Ian Quinn, talking to the late Seth’s phone, says he’s pleased. Coulson’s on the other line, though, and just as our heroic agent thinks he has the upper hand, the villainous billionaire tells him that The Clairvoyant says hello. Dun … dun … DUNNNNN!!! Shocker! (Not really.)

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